


April Fools

by AshWinterGray



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29191269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshWinterGray/pseuds/AshWinterGray
Summary: I was recently informed that one of the days that people claim John and Mary Grayson had died was April 1st.Better known as April Fools Day.This was the plot bunny that came to me.
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & John Grayson & Mary Grayson, John Grayson/Mary Grayson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 35





	April Fools

The entire set up had been absolutely perfect. Everything had been planned. Their son. Their little Robin. He was perfect in every way. Mary Grayson had been hesitant to let the Court of Owls take her son, but even she could see the danger in trying to defy them. So, despite their desire to keep their little boy safe and happy, they knew the consequences, and they agreed to go along with the Court of Owls’ plan.

The scene was set just as perfectly. Tony Zucco would be their scapegoat, believing he had killed them to gain rank in his little mob, unaware that he was doing the Court’s bidding. John and Mary would have a fall, of course, but it was easy to fake that, and the damage. Their son would be sent to the juvenile center where he would spend a few days before a distant family member would be found to take him in. And by that point, he would be ready for revenge.

The plan was perfect.

Or…so everyone thought.

Shortly after John and Mary made themselves invisible among a Romani camp, Dick Grayson was slowly settling into his life as the ward of one Bruce Wayne. It was an oversight no one could have predicted.

While the Court of Owls seethed, John and Mary Grayson remained blissfully ignorant of everything going on, moving on with their lives, and carrying the regret of what they did to their son everywhere they went.

So, understandably, it took a few years for them to hear the news. Okay, correction. It took a decade and some change to hear the news that Richard John Grayson had been adopted as the ward of Bruce Wayne.

Which was how they found themselves in the current situation.

“What do we do?” Mary asked her husband.

“I don’t know, Mary, neither of us thought this through,” John hissed back under his breath from their hiding spot.

“John! John! Here he comes. Look at him! He’s grown up to be so handsome!”

“Yeah,” John breathed as he caught sight of his son with a red-head on his arm. “He looks wonderful, Mary. But how should we do this?”

“I-I don’t know,” Mary stuttered, looking to her husband wide-eyed. “We could…we could jump out of the bush! Surprise him, perhaps! Then explain everything! We died on that holiday, right? April Fools day?”

“Why do you think I chose today to come back,” John offered a soft smile. “I was…hoping it would lighten the mood. Here he comes, Mary. Are you ready?”

Mary gave a nod, and John began to silently count down from 3 before they both sprang up from behind their headstones.

“APRIL FOOLS!”

Of course, like all things that surrounded Dick Grayson’s life, John and Mary made a severe miscalculation. Because the reaction of their son and his probably-girlfriend was to deck the two clean across the face. The couple fell unconscious fairly instantly.

\------------------

When John and Mary woke up, they found themselves in the warehouse district, not that either new. Neither did they know that the warehouse had recently been used as a secret drug cartel that the Red Hood had apprehended. All they saw were several masked vigilantes watching them from the dark.

“What…?” Mary tried, finding her voice dry and scratchy as she locked eyes with her husband and then looked to Batman. “What’s going on?”

“That’s what I’d like you to tell me?” Batman stated, his voice flat, but everything about him screamed a promise of brutal agony. “Who are you?”

“Mary,” she stuttered. “Mary Grayson. And-and that’s my husband. John. We were looking for our son. Have you-?”

“John and Mary Grayson were murdered at Haly’s Circus,” Batman quipped as John regained his bearings, eyes going wide at the sight. “They’re son was orphaned. Now tell me, who are you really?”

“I _am_ Mary Grayson,” Mary begged this Batman to understand. “Please! You have to believe! Take-take my blood! Whatever you need! Please, is my son alright?!”

“We already took your blood work,” one of the other vigilantes, Red Hood, if Mary remembered correctly. “And I suggest you comply with the Bat.”

“I _am_ Mary Grayson! I _am_! I swear I am! Please! I need to know if my son is safe from the Court of Owls!”

“Mary,” John wheezed, his voice just as scratchy as hers. “Mary.”

“What do you know about the Court of Owls?” Batman snarled, getting into Mary’s space, looming over her like a shadow ready to take her very soul.

“Mary,” John wheezed again. “They’ll kill us. Don’t.”

The vigilante known as Nightwing delivered a quick jab to the back of John’s head, and Mary gave a cry of protest as she watched her husband cry out in pain. He must of hit his head on the headstone or something, she could see bits of dried blood in his hair.

“Please!” Mary begged. “Don’t hurt him!”

“Tell us what you know about the Court of Owls,” Batman demanded again.

“Mary,” came the broken plea.

But Mary Grayson had already lost her son to the Court. What more did she have to lose now?

“They wanted my son,” Mary stated, getting a sob from John. “He was their Gray Son. They wanted him to become their killer, their Talon, and the only way to do that was to give him a drive. John and I thought we could avoid it, but when the Court came, we agreed to fake our deaths so we could live.”

“You would let your son live like a brainless monster,” the boy, Robin, scoffed. “You are unworthy of the title of mother.”

“WE DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE!” Mary screamed, sobbing as she did. “They were going to kill us. They were going to destroy Haly’s, and they would have made Dick given the final blow! We couldn’t let Dick live with the nightmare of having killed his own parents! Please! You have to believe me!”

As Mary sobbed, and John wheezed between tears, the Bats, one by one, began to leave. The Red Hood was left to untie them, and Mary lunged across the room to her husband where they continued to sob like broken messes on the floor.

It was the least they deserved.

\-----------------------

“Dick!”

Dick ignored the call, quickly peeling off his armor, uncaring for the damage he might be causing to his suit. Today. It had to be _today._

“Dick!” Bruce caught up with him. Not Batman. Bruce. “Dick. Chum. Look at me.”

Dick, with all the fire and fury he felt, whipped his gaze up to Bruce and glared the man down.

“How could…how could they do this to me?” Dick demanded, as if Bruce could give him those answers. “How could they just abandon me? They got away, didn’t they! They’ve clearly been living it up somewhere! How could they just abandon me!? How could they just think they could pop back into my lives!? How could-!?”

Bruce crushed Dick to his chest in a hug Dick so desperately needed. And Dick promptly broke down pulling Bruce to the floor as he sank to his knees, clutching the man who had been his father for nearly twenty years.

“I don’t know, chum,” Bruce admitted, pulling his son a little closer. “I really don’t know.”

\--------------------

It was three weeks before John and Mary got to see their son again. Three weeks after contacting old friends. The Court of Owls had long since begun to suffer with Batman in town, and Richard had thrived in his new life.

Without them.

Three weeks later, John and Mary were sitting in a little café, watching as their son entered the same shop with that red head, and a guy slightly younger than their boy, with white tufts in his hair. The boy with the white bangs moved to the line after a short discussion, and their beautiful boy made his way over to John and Mary with the red head.

“Mother,” Dick greeted formerly, something that made Mary’s heart ache. “Father. May I introduce you to my girlfriend, Barbara Gordon. And I’m sure you noticed my brother, Jason, getting in line.”

Mary and John nodded as Dick and Barbara slid into the booth.

“You wanted to talk,” Dick stated curtly. “So talk.”


End file.
